At York University's Schulich School of Business, the Tim and Frances Price Urban Lab shows how innovative financing can deliver social housing faster than traditional government programs.
Under program director Karen Shlesinger, the lab explores innovative business models and financing strategies to solve pressing urban challenges, including social housing. It does so by demonstrating how academic research can translate into practical, scalable solutions for communities while attracting private investment.
The lab fulfilled this mission in an innovative way - prefabricated materials - through a partnership with YW Kitchener-Waterloo, a non-profit housing provider. Together, they aimed to find a method to quickly house women experiencing homelessness in quality apartments while also creating a compelling business case for private investment.
Karen Shlesinger
In 2022, 41 women experiencing chronic housing insecurity moved into brand-new apartments in Kitchener-Waterloo after construction employed prefabricated cross-laminated timber to compress building schedules to just 12 months. The Urban Lab and its partners provided research expertise, guidance on innovative financing models and a framework for integrating private investment, ensuring the project was financially viable while addressing urgent social needs.
By pairing prefabricated construction with innovative financing, the Urban Lab and its partners created a model that is predictable and financially viable. Prefabrication compresses the construction timeline, reducing cost overruns and risk - two major concerns for private investors. At the same time, the financing structure combines rental income from tenants, grants and potential private investment to produce stable, measurable returns. Together, these elements create a compelling business case: investors can see when the building will be completed, how it will generate revenue and why it is likely to succeed, making it far easier to attract private capital to support social housing.
"The benefits of the prefab approach centre on delivering on a tighter schedule, reducing the risks that arise from longer on-site construction phases, overcoming challenges of seasonal construction, in addition to reduced on-site labour requirements," Shlesinger says.
The Kitchener-Waterloo supportive housing project is one of several initiatives through which the Urban Lab is advancing innovative infrastructure and housing solutions. In addition to this project, the lab partners with Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada to explore how private finance can transform infrastructure delivery across sectors, including social housing. It also received a $220,000 research grant from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation to document and share methods for rapidly delivering affordable housing nationwide. Meanwhile, collaboration with the Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON) helps address regulatory barriers to prefabricated construction, promoting scalability for future projects. Together, these initiatives demonstrate the lab's broader commitment to pairing innovation, research and private investment to tackle pressing housing challenges.
The social housing building in Kitchener-Waterloo.
The Urban Lab operates through formal partnership with Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada, exploring how private finance can transform delivery across four sectors: social housing, energy systems, urban mobility and critical minerals development. In collaboration with RESCON, researchers are also addressing regulatory barriers that typically slow prefabricated projects.
"By spurring innovation and promoting competitive productivity gains, the partnership seeks to enhance economic, social and environmental values in new arrangements with Canadian businesses," Shlesinger says.
For the 41 women now living in stable apartments, the project delivered immediate relief while proving the model could work at scale. On how that scaling could be achieved, Shlesinger says, "Knowledge dissemination of the approach used, key success criteria and lessons learned will be incorporated into a road map for all community housing providers nationwide, with potential to scale up across 28 YWCA locations across Canada."
With the Kitchener-Waterloo project as a proof of concept, the Urban Lab has shown that innovative financing and prefabricated construction can deliver social housing quickly and efficiently. By combining research, practical partnerships, and a focus on scalable solutions, the lab is creating a model that other communities and housing providers can adopt.
This story was originally featured in YFile, York University's community newsletter.
